Sedatives v tranquillers

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Does anyone have any experience of the effect of an oral paste tranquilliser, rather than an injected sedative when it comes to trace clipping a horse who has had very bad experiences of people, needles and veterinary interventions? My girl desperately needs a clip as she is sweating dreadfully but is terrified of any action that feels like removing hair (she had to have a liver flush and it was not a good experience for her). I can probably work with her to resolve this long term but she needs the clip NOW! My vets advise tranquillisers are not the same as sedatives. Anyone know whether a frightened horse will be sufficiently calmed by a tranquilser to be clipped? Or will her fear override any calming effect? Any info welcomed. Thanks guys.

 

[sueandtoto]

Our pony is TERRIFIED

of clippers and any attempts at trying to get him used to them havent worked at all up till now but we will carry on with it in the hope that he will learn that its not that bad!! He was fully sedated last year and it was so easy and he was fine, the vet said sedolin would not work ( he did watch as we switched the clippers on when he wasnt sedated) so its really the only way to go if your horse is really bad , good luck

 

[merlinsquest]

The horses terror will override any of the oral sedatives... trust me, even the injected sedation came to a very abrupt end when we got to merlins throat..... he was standing head hung till this point and then just woke up and that was it!!

 

[purple]

my show horse hates being clipped and gets very stressed out scince he was 4years old and had not changed and he is ten now, i have tried the oral paste but without any sucess, he is always sedated by my vet and this works with sucess , we maange to get him fully clipped just leaving his legs on, hope this is of some help.

 

[star]

Sedalin is the oral gel used which contains ACP. Any properly frightened horse will just fight this off. The injectable drugs we use are a combination of an alpha2 agonist and an opioid - these drugs are proper sedatives and will do a much better job but the horse can still fight them a bit if you stimulate them enough with something they are terrified of. My horse looks totally out of it on Dom/Torb until you stick a rasp in his mouth and then you might as well not have bothered sedating him coz he fights it all the way.

 

[kanter]

I have sucessfully used sedalin on a horse that was difficult to clip. The previous owner used to get the vet to do sedate him but I tried the sedalin as he has to be clipped every 3 weeks so obviously much cheaper. He had half a tube the first few times (took about 4 hours to work) and I had to use battery trimmers for parts of his body, and take it very steady. Gradually I have managed to reduce the dose and now (5 years on!) I can do all of him with big clippers without any sedation at all, in fact he gets quite dozy now when I start clipping as I think he asociates it with a bit of a nap! He had never had a bad experience with clipping though, was just very wary and ticklish, so maybe it wouldnt work with a really frightened horse.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Thanks everyone - this is really, really helpful. Will post a what-happened-next!!!